Showing posts with label CNET. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CNET. Show all posts

Friday, February 22, 2013

Hacker says security flaw let him access any Facebook profile

The social network recently fixed a bug discovered by a developer who demonstrated how the loophole let him take over other people's accounts.

A security hacker recently found a flaw in a Facebook system that allowed developers to access anyone's Facebook account through app permissions.
Though Facebook has fixed this issue, Nir Goldshlager, a Web application security specialist who looks for these types of flaws professionally, found more app authorization bugs that need fixing, according to his blog. App permissions are what developers use to access the user data needed to run their apps. Users give them access permission when they install the apps.
"I found a couple more OAuth flaws in Facebook, just waiting for a fix to post about it," Goldshlager wrote in his blog, where he detailed his findings.
Facebook wouldn't comment on what other flaws Goldshlager may have found but did say the original bug he detected had not been taken advantage of by actual Facebook developers. The company didn't say when Goldshlager reported the flaw.
"We applaud the security researcher who brought this issue to our attention and for responsibly reporting the bug to our White Hat Program. We worked with the team to make sure we understood the full scope of the vulnerability, which allowed us to fix it without any evidence that this bug was exploited in the wild," a Facebook representative wrote in an e-mail to CNET. "Due to the responsible reporting of this issue to Facebook, we have no evidence that users were impacted by this bug. We have provided a bounty to the researcher to thank them for their contribution to Facebook Security." 

The bug Goldschlager found allowed him to steal access tokens and gain full access to a profile as a developer. This included messages, pages management, ad management, private photos, and videos. This applied to profiles that didn't install extra apps because he could go through Facebook's built-in apps, like messenger, as well. The tokens for third-party apps didn't expire unless the victim changed his or her password, but the messenger app tokens for Facebook messenger never expired, he wrote. 

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

BlackBerry back in the game


After years of anticipation, frustration, and delays, Research In Motion (now re-branded BlackBerry) lets loose end BlackBerry 10. So now what?

That's the question a lot of folks in the industry are now trying that BlackBerry just days (or months, depending on the region) from a legitimate new product market competition for the first time in more than a year and a half. BlackBerry 10 offers a refreshingly slick and unique experience, and the two smartphones, the touchscreen BlackBerry Z10 and traditional Heavy-like C10, competitive look pretty.

But whether they are enough to turn some heads and get back lost customers appear. In the recent years have seen once dominant BlackBerry smartphone market share almost wiped out, with iOS and Android grabbing 92 percent of the share of smartphones sold in the fourth quarter, according to Strategy Analytics.After a long stretch had written much of the industry the company and many investors, BlackBerry recently enjoyed a renewed sense of excitement and heightened expectations - over the past six months. The company stock has more than doubled during the period. This week, however, the stock has fallen nearly 12 per cent amid fears that BlackBerry might not pull that comeback off after all.Still, the BlackBerry 10, BlackBerry foot in the door of the smartphone market. CNET is here with some unsolicited advice on cracking that door wide open.Keep the message clearSlick products market many have faltered because of a mind-numbingly dumb marketing campaigns. BlackBerry needs a simple message, a clearly, and agreed pushing handful of advantages that BlackBerry 10 over the competition. He must avoid trying to be too cute or fancy notifications - BlackBerry users and power users, the company is focusing on the value of their time, so get to the point quickly."BlackBerry end users squarely hit right between the eyes on how the platform works," said Ramon llamas, an analyst at IDC.That message was a better flow down to the floor salespeople, whether that is a carrier store or big-box electronic retailer. That consumers do not have enough time to fuss with a great learning a new operating system, BlackBerry to cut through the noise point of sale.BlackBerry seems to get. Chief Marketing Officer Frank Boulben said during the launch that every bit of marketing that has a real-world example of the benefits of BlackBerry 10.

 BlackBerry also need to run their own massive campaign and not rely on carrier partnerships. The last few years have shown that successful companies are the ones that have the marketing efforts into their own hands. That's why Apple is dominating Samsung Electronics and LG and HTC lagged.There is a lot of work to rehabilitate BlackBerry brand has taken more than its share of lumps over the past few years. While BlackBerry executives would argue that the BlackBerry name still really cool for some people it's a real uphill climb to get people - especially in the home market of North America care about BlackBerry again.Get some love carrierWhile BlackBerry to have their own identity, the company will need to support its carrier partners. Although most of the carriers said the right things about BlackBerry 10, it remains to be seen how eagerly they will actually promote the products.Again, the salespeople are familiar and comfortable with different carrier stores the BlackBerry devices to be crucial for some of them really highly of mobile services to consumers. Ideally, it should convince the carriers BlackBerry to offer financial incentives to promote the BlackBerry 10 products, but in the least, salespeople should be aware of the products. As we have seen with the Lumia 900 and AT & T, there is sometimes the execution.BlackBerry should shy away from exclusives as well, and so far, it seems to be the case. Each of the national carriers in the U.S. to sell the phone, although the company would only say that it would be available in mid-March.Although carriers promote talked about a strong third mobile ecosystem, it is not yet clear whether the No. 3 player to BlackBerry, Windows Phone, or some other upstart platform. BlackBerry will fight for his position."Because of the fast-rising adoption of smartphones, 2013 represents the last, best hope for BlackBerry 10 - as well as examples of risk such as Microsoft Windows Phone, Nokia Lumia, and Firefox Mozilla s create smartphone viable third competitor in the market, "said Ian Fogg, an analyst at IHS.Protect the business frontBlackBerry, ultimately, it is still big business and corporate agencies. Although the company has made some progress in getting some agencies and companies to test out the device, it will require a lot of effort to focus on businesses.Samsung Electronics and Apple already making significant progress in the business world and government, and BlackBerry major push back hard with BlackBerry 10. The features such as "Balance," will enable the phone to have a unique and secure personal identities and work, help win the hearts and minds of the IT manager.But we must be wary of the trend BlackBerry bring-your-own-device, when employers support no matter what their employees phones introduce While the company believes that BYOD is the trend that works for you it is arguably the worst hit by the phenomenon.Pull up to the BlackBerry faithfulCEO Thorsten Heins to speak about the company's 80 million-strong customer base. Well, it's time for BlackBerry to show customers why they stuck around.The company must make it incredibly easy - and affordable - to translate. BlackBerry users out there who love their keyboards and service, and the company needs to find them and keep them in the fold.BlackBerry may be making a mistake by pushing the touchscreen device Z10 X10 ahead of the more traditional, how much will the BlackBerry faithful want to go with it.But the incentives or discounts, BlackBerry has become aggressive to keep existing BlackBerry users happy.Expand the marketYour BlackBerry, it's time to go big when addressing the potential customer base. Super Bowl commercial start is nice, but it will have to work harder to attract more than one user the power of corporate or executive acts. Over the two BlackBerrys, the company will need to be more affordable midtier devices. This means that accelerate the roll-out of a product to be more inclusive, according to Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi.



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Monday, January 28, 2013

Twitter making it harder (sort of) to find porn on Vine


Unsurprisingly, there's plenty of porn on Twitter new video service. It's just a bit harder to find now that the company has blocked certain search terms. But still plenty.

As well reported, there is already an endless amount of porn on Vine, a new video service Twitter. But now visible, the social networking company to be doing it a little harder to get the material for adults only.

According to Edge, Twitter blocked on some porn of Vine search terms, such as "# porn." At the same time, however, it is clear that there are still many ways people find sex tapes 6-second. For example, search for "# nsfw," which means not safe for work, as a result of any lack of video.

And while some of the videos now as a result of tapping on the screen need to get past a warning that reads, "This post may contain sensitive material," they are still easy to find.

A Twitter spokesperson told CNET, "We are in the process of changing how users find and view sensitive material. We are experimenting with several approaches and will continue to iterate.
Although Twitter is blocked Vine search terms like "porn," it is still easy to find porn on the service by searching for terms like "nsfw."
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